


whisper in the night

by humanbehavior



Category: The Goldfinch (2019), The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Genre: Ear Piercings, Fluff, Gay Rights, I think that's all the tags, Las Vegas Era, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, Piercings, Platonic Relationships, Stupidity, ok cool 😎
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:34:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21725347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanbehavior/pseuds/humanbehavior
Summary: theo pierces boris' ear. it goes as bad as you would think it'd go.
Relationships: Theodore Decker & Boris Pavlikovsky, Theodore Decker/Boris Pavlikovsky
Comments: 7
Kudos: 82





	whisper in the night

**Author's Note:**

> first boreo fic so i have no idea if its in character or whatever ummmm hehe anywayz enjoy them being stupid ig

theo doesn't know how, or even why boris somehow managed to convince him to pierce the other boys ear. one factor, might've been that, i don't know, they were bored as shit. 

"okay, um," theo began, scrolling through his phone, "wikihow says we need-"  
boris cut off theo, nearly the minute he started talking, "wikihow? are you serious?" 

"what? i couldn't find another website that didn't use professional terms, or whatever," theo attempted to explain to him, to which boris shrugged, as if it was in agreement somehow. 

"okay, it says to mark the spot where you want to pierce," theo gestured to the marker in boris' hand. theo marked and guessed where a ear piercing is supposed to be. the worst thing that could happen is, an ear infection, at most, theo thinks. (theo later finds out that no, that's not the worst that could happen, he could paralyze half of boris' face)

"so i assume, i just stick the needle in then call it a day?" theo says, slightly confused. boris looks at the needle, then at theo, then back at the needle, and rests his glance on theo. he finally asks theo, "why are you using a needle?"

"well, uh- it's all we have-" theo stumbles over his words attempting to explain. 

"wait, who's we?" boris says confused, and when theo was about to open his mouth to say something, boris pulls his school bag over to his lap and pulls out a small, silver piercing guns like the ones they used at claire's. 

"where- where did you even get that?" theo questions, his eyebrows furrowed. boris had absolutely no money and he had never shown any previous interest in piercing his ear until tonight. 

"kotku."

somehow, that makes sense but, theo must've accidentally muttered a, _"what? what the fuck?"_ under his breath because boris then continues,  
"ah, she does it like, a side gig, ya know?" and the only thing theo can do is nod in response. 

looking back at his phone, theo reads that he needs to clean the lobe where the piercing will be at. theo gets up to get the rubbing alcohol from the bathroom and soon comes back to where boris was still sitting on the bedroom floor. theo quickly wipes the alcohol on the cotton pad and haphazardly rubs it on boris' lobe.

theo continues reading, scrolling through the wikihow page quickly.  
"one of the steps is-" before theo can even finish his sentence, he stifled his laughter with the sleeve of his worn out sweater.  
boris furrows his eyebrows in confusion, "what? what is it?"  
as theo is still laughing through the sleeve of his sweater, he shows boris the picture of a girl putting her hair up and the text below it reads: _To prevent hair from getting in the piercing, tie up your hair up and away from your ear_.

"what? i still don't get what is so funny," boris says and theo, having slowly calmed down from his laughing fit says, "you know what wikihow says, we have to do it!" 

"my hair isn't even that long!" boris argues and theos gaze immediately lands on the ends of his somewhat curly hair that rests on his shoulders. theo must have given him some sort of look because before theo even knew it, boris stood up and walked into xandra's room without a second thought.

thankfully, it was empty and she was still at work, so boris made it out of her room alive. boris plops down on the carpet and hands theo a black hair tie.  
boris gives theo an expecting look and without an exchange of words between the two boys, theo scoots over to where boris sat and carefully collected his hair into a small, baby ponytail. one long, stray hair sticks out from the ponytail and until now, theo had never realized how beautiful boris was since his face was always blocked by the dark curly locks or small bruises that always seemed to come and go. all theo seems to do is stare at boris in awe, he had never seen him like this and it felt intimate, almost.

boris notices theo staring at him as if he were under a spell or something. boris breaks the silence, "what? what is it?"

theo slightly jumps up at the sound of his voice, surprised. theo grabs the silver piercing gun that lay untouched in the middle of the room, avoiding the conversation. theo scoots closer to boris, leveling the piercing gun to a spot on boris' lobe where he thinks piercings are supposed to be, at least. theo can feel boris getting impatient by the minute so, without even a second thought, theo presses down on the handle and with a small _click_ the piercing is in. 

theo let out a breathe he didn't even know he was holding in, "alright, it's in."  
boris nodded, understanding the circumstances of what had just happened in that very second. theo began moving the piercing gun to remove the gun from where it was stuck on the piercing now on boris' ear. 

"oh shit," theo says as quietly as he can as an attempt to not alarm boris. unluckily, theo is right next to his ear as he says this, which unfortunately means, he heard theos' muttering. 

"what?" boris asks but it almost sounds as if he's demanding to know what was going on. theo felt almost obligated to tell him so he immediately tells him after boris had finished his question, "it's stuck."

boris nods softly and sniffles, rubbing his nose quickly. theo glances over to the other to see his eyes glassy with tears. 

"you good?" theo asks as he still attempts to unjam the piercing gun, which is nearly unattached from boris' ear.

"stings," is all boris mutters for theo to take his hand in his own unoccupied hand.  
as if it were magic, the gun finally unjams and theo removes the piercing gun from boris' ear slowly and carefully.

theo hands boris a handheld mirror that lay on the ground, boris takes it in his hand and examines the new piercing. his eyes look up and down then trail side to side, almost as if he was unsure about it. as boris still looks in the mirror, he glances up at theo then back to the mirror and finally says,

"i don't like it."

**Author's Note:**

> why did i put so much research in this fic like bruh....
> 
> anywayz my tumblr is punkrluvr if ya wanna talk!


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